Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle returned to the United States last week for a glamorous baby shower thrown by some of her closest friends. While from the outside, the lavish New York City event seemed like one of the hottest events of the year, the select few that were in attendance found it to be quite the opposite.

Meghan’s longtime pal and wedding makeup artist Daniel Martin revealed to People that from the inside, the shower was more of an intimate gathering with friends that hadn’t seen each other since the duchess’s royal wedding to Prince Harry last May.

“Snow was falling outside, and it was so cozy — we all sat on couches or on the floor and told stories and caught up,” he said. “It was like going to a family reunion.”

Another attendee, who chose to remain anonymous, spilled that there was a lot of baby talk going on during the festivities.

“She was getting tons of advice,” the source said.

Along with Martin, known guests of the shower included Amal Clooney, Gayle King, Abigail Spencer, Misha Nonoo, and Serena Williams, as well as her close friend Genevieve Hills, whom she met at Northwestern University. Since Meghan moved to London and doesn’t get much face-to-face time with her pals, the event was certainly seen as a nice chance to catch up and spend time together before the birth of her first child, whom they are all eager to meet.

As previously noted by the Inquisitr, Martin shared another detail of the duchess’s celebration shortly after the event. The makeup artist took to his Instagram page to share a photo of the custom iced sugar cookies served to guests, which were delicately decorated and largely colorless to avoid giving away the baby’s gender.

Another report from the Inquisitr noted that Gayle King also gave royal watchers the inside scoop about what went on during the event. The CBS This Morning co-host revealed that aside from snacking on delicious treats and chatting, the duchess and her guests were also treated to a floral arrangement lesson — something she said she’d never seen at a baby shower before.

“And then Meghan, at her request, they got in touch with an organization I’ve never heard of — Repeat Roses — and all of those are donated to different charities. I thought that was a very sweet thing,” King said during an airing of her morning show last week.

The duchess returned to London over the weekend, only to turn right around for a three-day tour of Morocco with Prince Harry that ended last night. The trip will be Meghan’s last before giving birth, as Harper’s Bazaar reported air travel is now off limits for the duchess, though she will continue to work in the weeks leading up to her due date.